Meewind in race zero-subsidy offshore windfarm to involve citizens

A newly established consortium of companies, called Frontier, wants to realize two new offshore wind farms together with 20,000 citizens.

Sustainable investment fund Meewind participates in the consortium that submitted a bid in the subsidy-free tender for the construction and operation of the Hollandse Kust Zuid 3 & 4 offshore wind project.

At present, only large energy companies and oil companies submitted a bid in the 750 MW tender: Engie, Vattenfall, Ørsted and the Witwind consortium of Shell, Van Oord and Eneco. The Dutch government opened the zero-subsidy tendering round for the Hollandse Kust Zuid 3 & 4 at the beginning of the month and closed the round on 14 March.

Meewind believes that citizens should also be able to participate in large green energy projects. "The energy transition must be paid for by everyone, by citizens and businesses. It is therefore self-evident that that citizen can share in the returns from investments in sustainable energy," says Willem Smelik, director of Meewind.

The new consortium offers, through the ‘Hollandse Kust Fund’, at least 5% of the property to citizens, companies and local authorities. As soon as the wind turbines are operational, there is expected to be an annual payment of the revenues. With a duration of 25 years, a total of more than 100 million euros of the profit from the park ends up with the citizens.

Up until now, the Meewind consortium is the first and only one that wants to achieve citizen participation in wind farms in the Dutch North Sea.

The Hollandse Kust Zuid 3 and 4

The Hollandse Kust Zuid 3 and 4 wind farms consist of two zones about twenty kilometers off the coast of The Hague. The new wind farms are expected to be commissioned in 2023 and will have a capacity of 760 megawatts. The wind farms are part of the plans for five large zones with wind turbines off the Dutch and Zeeland coasts. Together with the existing wind farms, this means that the capacity of all offshore wind turbines must grow to 4.5 gigawatts in 2023 and 11.5 gigawatts in 2030.